Tax Services
Briggs and Morgan tax attorneys serve a broad range of client needs, including federal and state tax planning, business and financial transactions, employee benefits, estate and gift tax planning, tax controversies and litigation.
One of Minnesota's preeminent tax lawyers on state and local taxation is Briggs and Morgan’s Jerome Geis who provides cutting edge advice regarding state and local tax issues such as the apportionment of income under state law, sales and use tax issues and compliance, unitary business filing requirements, property taxes, franchise taxes, telecommunications excise taxes and taxes on financial institutions.
Briggs regularly advises clients in matters such as state and local tax aspects of mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings and workouts, partnership and joint venture arrangements, debt securitizations, tax-exempt financings, tax-exempt organizations, and tax credits.
Our tax attorneys have extensive experience in planning and structuring merger and acquisition transactions. They have provided substantial legal assistance in taxable and tax-free stock and asset acquisitions, tax-free divisions, partnership and corporate tax issues, tax allocation agreements and other considerations involved in acquisitions and dispositions of businesses. Briggs and Morgan’s tax practice includes assistance to a broad range of clients in commercial banking, manufacturing, health care, public utilities, air transportation, real estate ventures, and publishing and consumer products. We have also assisted in the preparation of requests for advance rulings from the Internal Revenue Service in several instances.
Our attorneys also have significant experience in the field of providing tax assistance in securitization and tax-exempt financings. We have participated in a broad range of mortgage-and asset-backed securitizations, and commercial paper conduit transactions. In addition, we provide assistance to business clients in evaluating and securing tax-exempt financing for development projects and play a significant role in advising numerous public authorities on the complexities of tax law and regulations governing the issuance of tax-exempt debt obligations.
Briggs attorneys advise charitable and non-charitable tax-exempt organizations, including hospitals, schools, religious and civic organizations. In addition to advising management of these organizations with respect to matters pertaining to general operation and maintenance of tax-exempt status, our attorneys have assisted clients in forming, restructuring, and dissolving tax-exempt organizations, and forming donor advised funds.
Briggs and Morgan has been representing investors and lenders over the last 10 years in affordable housing projects which utilize the benefits of low-income housing tax credits allowable under Section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. We have substantial experience in analyzing and negotiating over 50 such investments on behalf of corporate clients. In addition, we have recently represented a corporate investor in the first affordable housing projects in the nation which have combined housing for public housing, low-income housing and market-rate housing in one development.
Our team has extensive experience in counseling clients on affordable housing, rehabilitation and New Market Tax Credits (NMTCs). Our firm has been involved in projects with development costs above $1.1 billion. We have been involved in a wide range of tax credit programs since first implementation and can assist with negotiations, drafting agreements and organizing community development entities.
Tax Planning and Compliance. Briggs and Morgan tax attorneys regularly assist clients with business and personal tax planning, including tax planning for corporations, Subchapter S corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, tax-exempt organizations, individuals, trusts and other entities.
Such assistance covers a broad spectrum of the Internal Revenue Code as well as Minnesota state and local taxation and includes issuing tax opinions and requests for letter rulings from the Internal Revenue Service and state tax authorities. A significant portion of this practice also includes information reporting and compliance assistance. Representative matters include joint venture tax planning, stock redemptions, stock splits, and choice of entity tax planning.
We also advise business clients in interstate income taxation, and sales and use tax compliance, a particularly important area for manufacturing clients who distribute products in numerous states. Business clients, particularly those faced with substantial tax reporting requirements because of large work forces, are also well-served by the experience of our tax attorneys in dealing with administrative compliance matters. One of the areas of our practice is the assistance we provide to business clients in evaluating and securing tax-exempt financing for development projects, and the significant role we play in advising numerous public authorities on the complexities of tax law and regulations governing the issuance of tax-exempt debt obligations.
Employee Benefits. Using a team approach with our labor and employment and business attorneys, our tax attorneys provide clients with substantial and in-depth technical experience and guidance on personal and corporate tax issues that arise in employee benefits matters. Such guidance includes the development, implementation and maintenance of employee benefits programs to achieve current and long-range compensation and retirement plan objections. We have extensive experience designing and implementing qualified retirement plans such as defined benefit pension plans, profit-sharing plans, 401(k) plans and employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) among others. In addition, our attorneys have developed and implemented a variety of non-qualified executive compensation programs such as stock option plans, incentive stock option plans, restricted stock plans, phantom stock plans and "golden parachute" arrangements. Our employee benefits attorneys play significant roles in planning and implementing mergers and acquisitions.
Estate and Gift Tax Planning. Briggs and Morgan has historically represented a large number of private, closely-held businesses. We strongly believe that good business planning for such organizations must always include officer succession planning and estate tax planning. Our business and tax attorneys work closely with our estate planning group to develop estate plans that will address both the individual needs and business needs of our clients and their closely held businesses.
Tax Controversies. Our attorneys represent clients in all aspects of federal and state tax controversies, audits, administrative appeals, including litigation in the U.S. Tax Court, the federal district courts, and the Minnesota state courts. We have extensive and successful experience in handling such controversies, many of them involving difficult and complex legal issues. As a result of this experience, Briggs and Morgan has developed good working relationships with the Internal Revenue Service District and Appeals Offices and the Minnesota Department of Revenue.
Tax Policy Matters. Our tax attorneys are regularly involved on behalf of clients, through professional groups and informal contacts, in the development of tax legislative proposals and administrative regulations, both at the state and federal level. We have assisted in the development and implementation of limited liability company legislation in Minnesota and have been closely monitoring and commenting on proposed reforms of the Internal Revenue Service.
Mergers and Acquisitions. Our tax attorneys have extensive experience in planning and structuring merger and acquisition transactions. They have provided substantial legal assistance in taxable and tax-free stock and asset acquisitions, tax-free divisions, partnership and corporate tax issues, tax allocation agreements and other considerations involved in acquisitions and dispositions of businesses. Briggs and Morgan’s tax practice includes assistance to a broad range of clients in commercial banking, manufacturing, health-care, public utilities, air transportation, real estate ventures, and publishing and consumer products. We have also assisted in the preparation of requests for advance rulings from the Internal Revenue Service in several instances.
Debt Securitizations and Tax-Exempt Financing. Our attorneys have extensive experience in the field of providing tax assistance in securitization and tax-exempt financings. We have participated in a broad range of mortgage-backed and asset-backed securitizations, and commercial paper conduit transactions. In addition, we provide assistance to business clients in evaluating and securing tax-exempt financing for development projects and play a significant role in advising numerous public authorities on the complexities of tax law and regulations governing the issuance of tax-exempt debt obligations.
Tax-Exempt Organizations. Our attorneys also advise charitable and non-charitable tax-exempt organizations, including private grant-making foundations, community foundations and numerous public charities, such as hospitals, schools, religious and civic organizations. In addition to advising management of these organizations with respect to matters pertaining to general operation and maintenance of tax-exempt status, our attorneys have assisted clients in forming, restructuring, and dissolving tax-exempt organizations, and forming donor advised funds.
Affordable Housing, Rehabilitation and New Market Tax Credits. Briggs stands uniquely positioned to assist direct investors, developers and lenders who wish to utilize low-income housing tax credits, rehabilitation tax credits and new market tax credit investments. Several of our attorneys have been involved in these tax credit programs since first implementation, including the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) programs. One member of our tax services team has significant experience with organizing and representing community development entities in the sale of tax credit eligible investments and making loans to qualified low-income community businesses, as well as assisting with the negotiation and drafting of NMTC allocation agreements.
Briggs knows how to structure, finance and evaluate the tax considerations for the simplest housing development to the most complex historic rehabilitation tax credit development involving master leases and tax credit elections. Our firm has been involved in projects with development costs of well over $1.1 billion.